[ SHORT ANSWER ]
Fly.io Machines give you more control and better economics for general workloads: global regions, fast-booting microVMs, persistent volumes, and your own networking. Choose 1Claw Cloud Runtimes when you want the agent-specific parts handled — vault-scoped secret injection, credential-free outbound execution, a hosted slug with inbound auth, and an audit trail — rather than assembling them yourself. Runtimes require Pro.
Running an agent on Fly is entirely reasonable, and if you do, use the 1Claw SDK inside it for credentials. The runtime product exists for teams that would otherwise build secret injection, an inbound auth layer, idle management, and audit from scratch.
Tier note: the 1Claw capability compared here requires Pro ($29/mo). See pricing.
[ COMPARISON ]
1Claw vs Fly.io Machines
Capability by capability. A dash means partial or qualified support — read the note.
[ WHEN TO USE ]
Which one is right for you
Most of these are not either/or. Where the competitor is the better answer, we say so.
Use Fly.io Machines when
- You want control over regions, networking, and volumes.
- Cost per compute hour at scale is the deciding factor.
- You are comfortable building secret injection and auth yourself.
Use 1Claw when
- You want the agent scaffolding — secrets, auth, audit — provided.
- Outbound calls should be made server-side without credentials in the container.
- The agent also signs transactions under guardrails.
[ MIGRATION ]
Moving over in three steps
Most teams keep Fly.io Machines for what it is good at and add 1Claw for the agent layer.
- 1Keep Fly for workloads where you want machine-level control.
- 2Create a 1Claw runtime for agents that need vault-scoped credentials.
- 3Move outbound API calls to Execution Intents bindings.
[ FAQ ]
Common questions
Can I run an agent on Fly and still use 1Claw?
Yes, and many do. Register it as an agent and use the SDK for policy-scoped credentials; you do not need 1Claw runtimes to use 1Claw.
What does a 1Claw runtime give me that Fly does not?
Vault-scoped secret injection at start, a sidecar mediating intents and execution, a hosted endpoint under run.1claw.co with inbound auth, idle auto-start, and agent activity in the same audit log as signing.
What does it cost?
Pro includes 3 runtimes and 100 pool hours; Team includes 10 and 500. Paid add-ons remove the runtime count limit.
[ RELATED ]
Other comparisons
[ FREE TIER ] 3 vaults · 50 secrets · 2 agents · 100 signatures/mo
Give agents access, not copies
Store the credential once, scope it per agent, and let the agent act without ever holding it.